TMCnet's Asterisk Week in Review

The Asterisk community is a great place to hang out, here are some of the top stories from that space over the past week.

TMC’s (News - Alert) Ashok Bindra wrote that with the rapid growth of the Internet and mobile communications in India, the country’s middle-class has been reaping the benefits of these advances for last several years. But, unfortunately there is a section of the population that is beyond its reach.

Many remote and tribal regions, including uneducated and illiterate users, are beyond the reach of basic Internet services. Market data shows that India, a country of 1.2 billion, has only around 100 million Internet users and over 800 million mobile phone subscribers.

Nevertheless, social reformers and activists have been working to bring the benefits of new technologies to the underserved population in India. To slowly bring these regions into the modern world, you need a combination of old and new technologies, according to Tripti Lahiri, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal’s IndiaRealTime site.

In this report, Lahiri wrote about an activist, Shubhranshu Choudhary, who started an Internet forum CGNet in 2004 to help draw greater attention to the concerns of tribal residents of insurgency-hit Chhattisgarh. “This state is badly served by the mainstream media because the number of Internet subscribers in that region are less than 0.5 percent of the population,” stated Choudhary.

Also this past week, TMC annouced, in conjunction with EMBRASE Business Consulting, that the fifth installment of StartupCamp Comms will occur at ITEXPO East, February 1-3, at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

StartupCamp Comms was launched in Miami back in early 2010 and has grown into a premiere ITEXPO event, packing in crowds of over 600 industry influencers, potential investors, media, and bloggers. Outside of a forum for early-stage entrepreneurs to pitch their communications products or services, StartupCamp is widely recognized for attracting unique and rare speaking appearances from the likes of Craig Walker (founder of Google (News - Alert) Voice), Bob Metcalfe (inventor of the Ethernet), and now Sir Terry Matthews.

Matthews is a world-renowned entrepreneur who has founded or funded over 80 companies since 1972, including Newbridge Networks and Mitel (News - Alert). Matthews will open the event at 4:45PM on February 2.

Also this past week, TMC had the news that Whaleback Managed Services, a managed business communication services vendor, announced that TMC has named Whaleback's CrystalBlue Cloud-based Managed Voice Services as a recipient of its 2011 Unified Communications (News - Alert) Excellence Award.

Whaleback's CrystalBlue Cloud-based Managed Voice Services provides unified communications to small and medium enterprises that need a robust, mobile and easy-to-use solution. By integrating voice, messaging, conferencing, and contact centers into a single, manageable service, CrystalBlue simplifies the way companies communicate and improves collaboration within the organization and with customers, partners and suppliers.

“Whaleback's CrystalBlue Services deliver unified communications to small and medium enterprises that need a robust, mobile and easy-to-use solution, and we are honored that TMC has recognized the product for the reliable quality it brings to our customers,” said Karil Reibold (News - Alert), President and CEO for Whaleback Managed Services.

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David’s articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.